Top 6 Benefits of using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Progressus for Consulting Firms

Despite economic turbulence, the $230 billion consulting industry has boomed in recent years, with over 50% of firms seeing revenue growth over the last three years. This is no flash in the pan trend – over the next few years, the industry is expected to experience double-digit growth assisting clients with some of their greatest challenges during a period of significant global disruption. The year ahead could prove disruptive for the entire industry so positioning and strategic evolution will be key in the war for talent, business, and trust.

Consulting firms are finding that they can operate much more efficiently with project-centric software.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Progressus

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a comprehensive, cloud-based ERP solution for small to midsized businesses, connecting sales, service, finance, and operations to work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. It has the best ROI in the business – a recent Forrester study shows that organizations typically experience 162% ROI with Dynamics 365 Business Central over a three-year period.

But Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central alone doesn’t have all the functionality that consulting firms need. Progressus is purpose-built on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to provide firms with the tools they need to ensure every project is profitable.

Progressus for consulting firms has helped firms like JG Management Systems, ScottMadden, and Kidder Matthews make data-driven decisions with real-time visibility into project operations and full control over every aspect of your projects. Here are the top six benefits for consultancies.

1. Maximize Client Retention

As consulting and advisory services are no longer enjoyed by the C-suite alone, with traditional big-dollar investments making way for nimbler, cost-effective projects, the consulting firms which adopt a more agile mindset and invest in spotlighting their competitive differentiators will be better placed to usher in growth.

Progressus helps you deepen your connections with prospects and clients. You can monitor activities, track sales progress, and swiftly transition from sales quotes to orders. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central plus Progressus allows you to gain insights into your customers’ needs, unlocking potential cross-selling and up-selling avenues.

2. Improved Communication and Collaboration

The road ahead for consulting firms shows a tale of diverging narratives. What connects them is the need for clear, open, and proactive communication strategies that propel them through upheaval into sustained future growth.

Progressus enables better ways of communication and collaboration, allowing teams to contribute anytime, from anywhere – imperative when it comes to supporting the hybrid, post-pandemic workplace.

3. Flexible Billing and Insightful Revenue Stream Analysis

Progressus has built-in billing to manage subscription management and deferred revenue billing. You can also bill multiple projects on a single invoice and tackle change orders. You can navigate your project finances using the Progressus Project Accounting feature. It simplifies complex accounting tasks, offers real-time cost insights, and ensures efficient billing. You can then empower your decisions and elevate your project’s financial management to the next level. You can also support defined scopes of service, multipliers, and fees, and stay on top of the dreaded scope creep. By achieving clear visibility into service and licensing revenue, you become empowered to make more lucrative decisions.

You can also manage multiple entities of your firm and track performance across different organizations with access to comprehensive Business Intelligence and reporting. With a single set of master records, your data is always up to date and accurate.

4. Optimize Contract Processes

Depending on the type of contracts you’re using, Progressus helps you efficiently manage them with streamlined reviews, secure document storage, and easy onboarding in crucial areas. Once you’ve secured the client and contract, you can use the Project Wizard within Progressus which fills in the details automatically and without errors, saving 90% of project creation time. The Project Wizard offers project templates, invoicing blueprints, and every project gets its dedicated budget, linking all quotes, contracts, and billable aspects directly to it.

5. Generative AI Functionality

Progressus allows you to work more efficiently with generative AI tools. With Copilot from Microsoft, your users can rely on real-time intelligence to work more effectively using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. Copilot helps to make once-complicated tasks simple.

6. Effectively Manage Resources and Utilization

Gain full visibility into the skills, availability, and experience of your resources so you always have the right person on the right job at the right time. Workflows provide automatic alerts to resource utilization and capacity constraints.

“Progressus has made our work more efficient. I love invoice suggestions; it makes the invoicing process go very quickly. Getting in and out of timesheets and expense sheets are easy, as well as entering the time and expenses. The project wizard used in conjunction with the project/task templates is a game changer. What used to take about 30 minutes now takes 5.”

– J.G. Management Systems

Conclusion

As you can see, most major challenges for consulting firms come down to communication, collaboration, and planning. The good news is that the right processes and tools can address all three. Firms that embrace change, try out different solutions, and improve workflows can see these challenges resolved quickly.

With more than 33 years of implementation experience, Velosio gets your software up and running—effectively and efficiently—as quickly as possible. Our teams of application consultants and project managers, who are among the best in their field, are ready to help your business keep its commitments while investing in the latest technological advances. We guide your technology roadmap on a schedule that meets the demands of today’s fast-moving marketplace.

Velosio has helped over 4,000 clients with systems modernization projects and is the top Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner and 2023 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central US and Worldwide partner of the year. Velosio developed Progressus for project-based organizations like consulting firms succeed. We can evaluate your current systems and develop a roadmap to upgrade any lingering legacy systems. To learn more about Progressus, visit the Progressus site here.